I wished MSE was more like HPC.........

StevieJ

Generali wrote: »

Am having a minor problem with my iPhone so I took it into the Apple shop on George Street in Sydney.

"You got it wet, I can see by this red dot", says he.
"Ok, but I've not dropped it in my beer or used it in the shower. It has been known to rain in Sydney", replies Generali the impossibly handsome yet implausibly modest hero of the tale.
"Yeah, well the gold connectors start to corrode when they get wet ya see. I can do you a new one for $249".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold

You will have that Bettybreadbasket character on your case again if you are not careful

StevieJ

AD9898 wrote: »

I often wonder whether the likes of yourself, Hamish etc would feel the same and have the same attitude if you were a young FTBr, somehow I doubt.

I suppose I can answer that one, I bought in late 88 when prices doubled in no time and interest rates the same, no I wasn't whinging all the time, I just got on with paying it back.

ess0two

Really2 wrote: »

Being MSE I am looking at the possibility of this as my contract is up at the end of march.
Three do an android phone , and if you top up £10PM you get 100 mins, 3000 texts and 500mb download allowance. I would rather they dropped the texts and increased the mins. I might have to go for £15 per month.

Got an HTC desire at the mo,beats the iphone fanboys hands down.Half the price of an iphone contract also.

Cleaver

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's MSE... a money saving site. First piece of advice is: dump the expensive hardware.

I've not seen an iPhone yet.

I always smile when I hear people talk about how all young people have a phone and how they are an expensive luxury.

I have a very new smartphone which was free on contract and costs me £19 a month for pretty much as many texts, calls and internet that a reasonable person would need.

I probably spend more per month on washing machine tablets and dried pasta than I do my mobile. Think it accounts for less than 0.5% of my monthly income, so it isn't really a big deal financially and I imagine this is similar for most people.

IveSeenTheLight

Really2 wrote: »

I read that before the link, how funny the most unreactive metal is corroding.
Maybe you have had some fairly strong acid rain (Aqua regia) but you would usually show some marks of that on yourself, mainly becoming a liquid.

The thing that you may not be aware of, but your not really looking at the gold in it's natural state.

Most likely it's gold plated connectors, which will have a small electrical current running through it.

I've seen example where the connectors have not been cleaned properly, leading to the iron leeching through the gold and resulting in dendritic growth on the connector.

So it's not the water that causes the degredation, it's the other materials in the assembly.

IveSeenTheLight

Cleaver wrote: »

I always smile when I hear people talk about how all young people have a phone and how they are an expensive luxury.

I have a very new smartphone which was free on contract and costs me £19 a month for pretty much as many texts, calls and internet that a reasonable person would need.

I probably spend more per month on washing machine tablets and dried pasta than I do my mobile. Think it accounts for less than 0.5% of my monthly income, so it isn't really a big deal financially and I imagine this is similar for most people.

Interesting perspective.
£19 a month is still £228 per year.
Do you also have a land line? You can get this for as little as £9.99 line rental per month.
Also add in broadband (presuming a rough £10 per month)
So your communications is likely to add up very quickly to £39 per month + any land line useage your household does

Also interesting that when you compare this to recent reports (and discussions on another thread) that the housing benefit cuts will affect those receiving HB and the fact it will affect them only £9 per week on average.
It makes you wonder really how much of a factor it will be.

nicko33

Cleaver wrote: »

I probably spend more per month on washing machine tablets and dried pasta than I do my mobile.

That seems unlikely, but if true it's somewhere you could probably save money quite easily.

phil_b_2

You can get a good smartphone with adroid and 3G internet etc on a reasonable plan for about £20 per month, with no handset fee. Anyone who thinks that is extravagant expenditure for one of their primary forms of communication with the world must be in the poor house.

Iphones arent really much worse, that's why you see loads of chav kids running around with them.

Cleaver

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

Interesting perspective.
£19 a month is still £228 per year.
Do you also have a land line? You can get this for as little as £9.99 line rental per month.
Also add in broadband (presuming a rough £10 per month)
So your communications is likely to add up very quickly to £39 per month + any land line useage your household does

Also interesting that when you compare this to recent reports (and discussions on another thread) that the housing benefit cuts will affect those receiving HB and the fact it will affect them only £9 per week on average.
It makes you wonder really how much of a factor it will be.

It's difficult to comment for me as my work pay my broadband (£7.99 a month). I hate paying for a landline as I don't use it, but I need it for my broadband.

Even if work didn't pay, £7.99 for all the wonderful stuff the internet gives me is ace value for money. Just like the licence fee it's one bill I actually feel I get value for money from.

My phone is similar. For £19 a month I get to stay in touch with all my friends, use the internet whenever I need it, Sat Nav and maps for getting around and finding stuff (I work away from home so really use this a lot to find restaurants and places where I'm working), all my music on the same device, can check share prices and buy / sell if needs be, book tickets, play games (which is rare, but sometimes passes the time) etc. etc. I think it's pretty good value for money too. And something, now that I've had it for a good few years, I would struggle to be without.

My car insurance, currently around £500 a year (but was £1,000 a year four or five years ago) is something I've never used in seven years but have probably paid an average of around £65 a month for in that time. I know it's necessary, but that's a monthly amount that I really hate to see.

Cleaver

nicko33 wrote: »

That seems unlikely, but if true it's somewhere you could probably save money quite easily.

Okay, maybe not true. But you know what I mean. I certainly probably buy a round of drinks for work colleagues for £20 each month and don't really think too much about it, and that's much worse value that what my mobile phone gives me.